Tonnage Tax Manual

Qualifying companies and ships: Pleasure craft

Definition

A ‘pleasure craft’ is defined as a vessel of a kind whose primary use is for the purposes of sport or recreation.

A vessel that has individual fare-paying passengers is not a pleasure craft. For example, a commercially operated cruise liner, although operated primarily for the recreation of its passengers, is not a pleasure craft.

A vessel that is chartered as a whole by its passengers, for example a holiday yacht, is a pleasure craft.

Chartered ‘as a whole’ will include charter by a passenger alone, or by passengers acting together, or by a third party acting on behalf of one or more of the passengers.